BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Rosamund Pike is a Bond girl on a mission with Tom Cruise

Rosamund Pike revealed that being a Bond girl is a ‘cool club’ to be part of — though that wasn’t always the case.

As Skyfall, the latest 007 movie, prepares to open, the actress — who played Miranda Frost opposite Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day — told me she might once have been somewhat ambivalent about being seen as just a pretty appendage.

Even an appendage associated with one of the most successful film franchises in cinema history.

Rosamund Pike has shed the moniker of 'Bond girl' and joined a star-studded cast for the Long Way Down film

Big break: Rosamund shot to fame in Die Another Day

Die Another Day was her first film, and the sudden, full glare of international publicity was startling to her.

Also, she had no comprehension then that she would be associated with Bond history for ever.

Ten years on, she sees it differently. ‘Now I’ve got perspective,’ she said. ‘Now it just seems like a very cool punctuation mark on the CV. It’s a cool club to be a part of.’

Rosamund has been busy adding to that CV of late. She stars with Tom Cruise in the potent new action-thriller Jack Reacher — based on the 2005 novel One Shot by Lee Child — which opens on Boxing Day.

And she recently finished a small role with her old Bond, Brosnan, in the film Long Way Down.

‘It was nice to be ten years on, and feel that familiarity and camaraderie. We started reminiscing about Bond, and you realise that it’s such a magic thing to do.’

She said it would be ‘reductive’ if she was always referred to as a ‘Bond girl’. ‘Not that it’s an insult — I’m proud as hell of it,’ she added quickly. ‘ I was delighted to be a Bond girl, but if that’s your moniker for ever, it’s a bit annoying.’

Felicity Kendal is blessed with a magical ingredient few actors possess — great comic timing.

We know it from television classic The Good Life and the many shows she has starred in on TV and the stage over the years.

Recently, she has been touring the country in a rare revival of one of Alan Ayckbourn’s early plays, Relatively Speaking, and now the Theatre Royal Bath production is planning to transfer to Wyndham’s Theatre, running from

May 14, 2013, through the summer till August 31.

Felicity knows her way around Ayckbourn, having been in the playwright’s seminal comedy The Norman Conquests.

But what is comic timing Felicity says it’s all about how you speak a line. ‘Good directors teach you when you are young. They teach you how to find the laugh in a word, or a phrase. Do you wait a beat, or do you keep talking The timing is different every night in the theatre and instinct kicks in, like fly fishing. You have to play the audience. It’s about how you communicate to them.’

Check out old episodes of The Good Life, or watch Felicity being interviewed by Piers Morgan on ITV tonight, to see what she means.

Until May, Felicity will be keeping her timing sharp preparing for a new TV series, which may go before the cameras soon.

Leading lady takes a Les Miserables holiday

Actress Sierra Boggess hasn't had much of a break

Musical theatre leading lady Sierra Boggess was supposed to be taking a short holiday from playing Fantine in Les Miserables in London.

Instead, she has found herself rather busy in New York.

In January, Sierra will resume the role of Christine in Phantom Of The Opera on Broadway, for a limited, six-week run.

She’ll star in a gala performance on January 26 to mark 25 years of the Phantom in New York — the first time a Broadway show has run for so long.

‘It hasn’t been much of a break,’ Sierra admits. ‘I’ve been having costumes fitted, and I’ve been working.’

She took various roles in a presentation to investors of a new show she will do in New York later next year. Prince Of Broadway celebrates Hal Prince’s legendary theatre career, during which he directed Evita and Phantom.

Sierra, of course, played Christine in the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies in London. She also starred when Phantom went to Las Vegas six years ago.

Christine may be young and vulnerable, but Sierra argues that, eventually, she’s more grown-up than the men in her life. ‘You can play her as a damsel in distress, but I don’t think she is,’ she said.

‘She realises she has nothing but herself to get through this.’

Watch out for…

Zoe Boyle and Jamie Parker, who play Maggie The Cat and Brick in Sarah Esdaile’s acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’s play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, which is running at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds until October 27.

Zoe Boyle will star in the acclaimed production of Tennessee William's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

There are rumours of talks about transferring the play to the West End and Ms Esdaile certainly has the pedigree.

Her grandfather, David Land, was the impresario who helped put Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice on the musical theatre map, and an aunt and cousins are from the Grade clan, so the stage is certainly in her blood.

Brad Pitt, who will be working on five weeks of further re-shoots on the film World War Z in London and the Home Counties next week.

Director Marc Forster spent several weeks preparing to shoot new footage for the movie, based on Max Brooks’s novel World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War.

Brad Pitt will be working on further reshoots on the film World War Z in the UK

Gillian Anderson (the Witch), pictured below, Rob Brydon (the Cat), Martin Clunes (the Dog), Sally Hawkins (the Bird), David Walliams (the Frog) and Timothy Spall (the Dragon), who are the all-star voice cast in the 30-minute animated special Room On The Broom.

Created by Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler — the team behind The Gruffalo — it will be broadcast on BBC1 this Christmas.

Gillian Anderson will join all all-star voice cast for Room On The Broom

The short film, which is narrated by Simon Pegg and features a striking score by Rene Aubry, shows how the Witch’s friends protect her from a hot and bothered dragon.

Ms Hawkins is expected to attend the closing film gala for Great Expectations, which is being shown on Sunday night as part of the BFI London Film Festival.

Sally plays Pip’s short-tempered sister, who ‘brought him up by hand’.

A lesson in friendship

Daniel Mays, last seen as Ronnie Biggs in ITV drama Mrs Biggs, who will join Liam Garrigan, Tim Steed and Susannah Wise in E.V. Crowe’s new play Hero, which will run at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from November 23.

The drama’s about a same sex couple (one of whom is a teacher) who plan to adopt, and how they deal with homophobia when a straight friend turns on them.